1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer hardware and software, and more particularly to a round trip response time measurement for computer programs.
2. Description of Related Art
In today""s environment, it is common for desktop computers to run many different local and/or network applications simultaneously. Within such computing environments, it is not unusual for one application to execute significantly slower than other applications. Further, it is not uncommon for the operation of one application to seriously impact the performance of other applications on the computer. As a result, the user may have to wait an inordinate amount of time for applications to respond. The wait time experienced by a user is typically directly related to that user""s productivity and business opportunity.
As more software applications and information are transferred via the Internet, determining performance of individual applications, based only on their observable behavior, becomes difficult. For example, a user may be unable to reliably detect whether abnormal performance for a specific application is the result of operations performed by that application, or whether it is the result of the impact from another application, or whether it is the result of the performance of the server or another remote system. Further, since each application may be able to perform many different kinds of processing, the user may have no idea that certain requests have significantly worse performance. Thus, there is a need in the art for techniques that allow the performance of various applications to be accurately and automatically measured. Further, there is a need in the art for determining where the response time of each application is being affected.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention discloses a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for measuring round trip response time for computer programs.
The method comprises the steps of starting a software timer when a transaction is initiated at a terminal of the computer, and sending the transaction to a server in the network environment. The server services the transaction, and generates a response to the transaction. When the response is received at the terminal the software timer is stopped. The start time is subtracted from the stop time to calculate a round trip response time.
Round Trip Response Time can be calculated for transactions between a Web Browser and Web Server or a Web Application when these components are used over the Internet or Intranet. Further, using a dynamic Web Page tagging technique and a Java Applet, this Round Trip Response Time can be further segmented into sub-functions that make up the total transaction time. These sub-functions are known as Load Time, Resolve Time, Application Response Time and Browse Time.
Various advantages and features of novelty, which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and form a part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, its advantages, and the objects obtained by its use, reference should be made to the drawings which form a further part hereof, and to accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is illustrated and described specific examples in accordance with the invention.